The Backbone, Liver and Kidneys of Society
by Zou Sama
Summary: We know about events such as the Faunus war and the Mountain Glenn tragedy. However details about the events are rather light... If we are to learn more about these events our best source would be the first hand accounts left behind by those involved. Shall we begin our study?
"Hello students. How are you all? Did you have a good weekend? Fantastic! Now then, on to today's lesson." Dr Oobleck spat the words out at his usual million miles per second.
All was as it usually was.

Ruby had the necessary books and stationary with her, but was fully prepared to goof off rather than work.  
Weiss had the necessary books and stationary as well as several extra research materials of her own.  
Blake sat calmy, pen in hand and ready to work.  
Yang wasn't yet entirely awake, but was certainly doing a very good impression of it.

Everything as per usual.

Jaune wasn't entirely awake either, though he wasn't even trying to hide his thousand yard stare.  
Nora was too contented with her morning pancakes to listen to anything Oobleck had to say.  
Pyrrha was sorting through last lesson's notes and arranging them for the current lesson.  
Ren was organizing his pens and pencils for later use.

Everything as per usual.

Oobleck continued his verbal barrage as he zipped around the room.  
"Due to recent classroom conduct, I thought we would spend today's lesson to remind ourselves of why we do what we do. Everybody pull out your textbooks and turn to chapter 14!"

Weiss had the page open before most even had their books ready. She raised her hand.  
"Yes, Ms Schnee?" Oobleck zipped over to her seat.  
"Didn't we already cover Mountain Glenn, Proffesor?" Weiss asked.  
"Indeed. However our previous case study only went so far as to outline the events of the tragedy, and not those who were involved in it." Oobleck continued to zip around the classroom.

"Today we will be looking at the diary of one of Mountain Glenn's inhabitants, found buried under the rubble years after the tragedy occured. And..." He zipped back to Weiss' seat.  
"That's 'Doctor' thank you. Moving on!"

* * *

I will start off by saying that I find this all very difficult to put into words, even if they are just written ones. Saying, or even writing it means it was real. It happened. It's happening.  
I guess the first thing to say would be my name. That would be 'Gylfi Aurum'.  
The second thing should be plainly obvious, assuming this ever gets found; I did not, have not, will not, Whatever the right way to say it, survive.  
I'm dead. Or will be dead. Whatever. And Mani... Well, tense aside she's dead.  
I don't know whether anyone will or did survive, so I'm writing this all down so that there will be some record of what happened. It won't just be a mystery.  
To be honest, I don't know exactly what broke down or what caused it or anything. All I know is what the results were.  
Anyway, enough beating around the bush.

Back before everything went south, Glenn was doing fine as expected. I worked at a crappy corner store for a crappy boss serving crappy people.  
It sounds a bit harsh, but I don't really blame them. Despite being told we were safe here, there was an underlying fear of being attacked. I mean, real estate was dirt cheap and you couldn't walk more than a street without seeing posters telling all able bodied adults to 'Pursue a rewarding career in defending Mountain Glenn!'. But don't worry, they didn't discriminate against minors. There were combat classes for under-aged people that offered opportunities to go straight from graduation to employment.  
It didn't exactly reinforce the whole 'safety' message they were trying to spread.

But like I said, real estate was dirt cheap in comparison to Vale, and not everybody is born a Schnee. Most people I knew moved here because they could afford it more than any desire to support the expansion effort.  
And so we all lived. Working just the same as inside the Kingdoms, except without the protection of copious numbers of soldiers and Hunters and the like.  
That also sounds a bit harsh... We had a number of Hunters and Huntresses patrolling our borders and taking out any Grimm who got too close, and with all the posters there were a fair damn number of people working as soldiers and militia.  
For most of us though, it was just the work and fear part.

Like I said, I worked at a corner store. Our humble workplace was around the middle of the city, so we got plenty of business from the aforementioned soliders and militia (most of whom had some weird sense of entitlement, despite leaving all the hard work to the Hunters and Huntresses).  
So my day typically involved waking up, waking up my sister Mani (we're orphans. That's our reason for moving to Glenn), getting her off to school and then working at the store serving jerks until it was time to head home, make dinner for Mani and myself, and go to bed. Such an exciting life I lead...

The most interesting thing in my life was one of my regular customers. A Hunter by the name of Jack Bean.  
He would stroll into the store typically looking like he was a stray from the hospital. He had this kind of mischevious glint in his eye, and you kinda knew that he was trouble from looking at him. Not bad trouble, mind you. More like the 'Young boy who's always pulling pranks' kind of trouble.  
This was not what he'd usually convey to my customers, however. What they saw was a man in a green cape and combat gear stumble into the store bloody and bruised, looking rather angry. Not wanting any part of that, they'd hurry up whatever they were doing, buy their stuff and leave.  
The moment they left, he'd drop the act, stand up straight and start laughing with a hand in his short black hair.

I never minded because it never usually interrupted business, and I was usually trying to hold in my own laughter while watching all the customers fighting the urge to drop a load out of fear.  
Jack would walk around the empty store grabbing his stuff while we talked. He always used to tell me about how his jobs went, secrecy be damned. He was kind of like Mani and I's adoptive father in a way. When he was in town he helped us out however he could, bought us dinner every now and then, helped Mani with her homework and all that kind of stuff.  
So he'd bring his stuff up to the counter and pay for it, I'd throw in a bag of his favourite chips for free and he'd head off.

We met Jack on our first day in Mountain Glenn. We had just thrown our stuff in the apartment I found and headed out, looking for someplace to eat.  
The main food district wasn't far, so it wasn't a massive walk. We passed several pizzarias, pasta joints, fried chicken, pubs, but nothing that both caught our fancy and was within out price range.

As we passed a fancier looking restaurant, I looked inside to see Jack and his green cape pottering around inside looking quite out of place among the fancy dress.

It was obvious to me that he was only in there because he was bored. One of the waiters approached him and I could see him asking Jack something. Jack's response, whatever it was, seemed to annoy the waiter a bit, and I decided to watch for a bit.  
Jack and the waiter kept talking, and whatever Jack was saying was clearly making the waiter quite upset. He was doing a very good job of not exploding, but eventually a couple other waiters came over to escort Jack off the premise.

As the door opened and they pushed Jack out, I could hear them telling him in to so kind words that he wasn't welcome in their fine establishment henceforth, and that should he step foot inside again that the local law enforcement would be involved.  
I have no idea why I decided it was my business, but I did. I stepped forward with Mani, saying "I'm sorry about my cousin. It's his birthday and he's been drinking quite a lot. We lost sight of him about half an hour ago."

The first waiter pursed his lips and held his jacket a little bit.  
"Yes well... Make sure it doesn't happen again, or there shall be consequences!" and he closed the door. I led Jack around the corner and he started laughing hysterically.  
Mani and I chuckled a bit too. Apparently he'd been asking the waiter whether they did fried chicken, and upon being told they didn't he'd starting listing off all the business benefits they would have from adding it to their menu and then silently laughing as the guy got angrier and angrier.  
That was pretty much his comedy MO. Act the fool to annoy people and laugh at them once out of sight.

So yeah, after introductions he went and bought us dinner to say thanks for bailing him out.  
I told him we had just moved in that day, and that I was going to be working at a corner store, where Mani was going to school, this that and the other thing.  
He told us he was a Hunter, and that was about all he was allowed to tell us. He did have a few stories of course, but the good ones he only told us after he pretty much became family.

So that was us. Me, the best sister ever Mani, and the mischievous Hunter Jack.  
About a week before it all hit the fan Jack came into the store as per usual, except this time he wasn't quite so jolly. He'd been hunting this giant Beowolf for months and it just kept giving him the slip. He'd taken to calling it 'Skoll'. As he put it, 'A worthy adversary needs a good name'.  
Apparently Skoll was the reason for the majority of his injuries this week, after it had led him into a massive pack of Beowolves and getting away from him yet again. The pack didn't survive, but Skoll's trail was gone and Jack had to come back empty handed again.  
Jack explained that he thought Skoll might be incredibly old, as he displayed a decent level of intelligence for a wild animal, let alone a Grimm. He said it wasn't a good idea to let a Grimm like that anywhere near the city, and that given enough time and bad energy in Glenn, Skoll could end up in charge of the largest pack he'd ever seen.  
He said it wouldn't be too bad if the Hunters and Huntresses around Glenn remained active, but he predicted there would be a few casualties if a pack that big was really waiting outside the city. That's why he was so focussed on killing Skoll. He wanted to stop that from being an issue.

About three days after that visit, there was a shooting in Glenn. Some guy apparently had been stockpiling guns and ammo just in case the Grimm got in and the police found out. When they tried to arrest him he killed five of them before turning the gun on himself.

This was not the event Glenn's citizens needed. We were already pretty on edge thinking about Grimm attacks, but we had just been reminded that the Grimm weren't the only danger. We also had to keep an eye on strangers. Anyone could be the next guy to go crazy.

* * *

"Excuse me Doctor?" asked Blake with her hand up.  
"Yes, Ms Belladonna?" responded Oobleck, who characteristically zipped right on over to Blake's seat.  
"How come there was no news coverage of this shooting? Surely if someone shot five people it'd be all over to papers." She asked.  
"Excellent question Ms Belladonna! As Gylfi mentions, Glenn's citizens were already quite stressed. The press believed that ignoring such stories would be wise so as to avoid fear. However the fact that they were avoiding the issue so devoutly made some people suspicious, and their suspicions spread and turned into fear, which turned into panic." Oobleck moved through the classroom so fast he might as well have been teleporting.  
"But surely at least ONE paper would have reported on it after the fact, right?" Ruby chimed in.  
"Under normal circumstances, certainly. However, had you been a reporter at the time trying to sell papers, would you have covered the five murders and suicide, or the collapse of an entire colonization effort and the slaughter of thousands at the hands of the Grimm?" Oobleck took a long gulp from his thermos.  
"This goes to show how much pull the news media really has over us all. While I disagree, there are many who theorize that the unrest this event caused is what lead the Grimm to Mountain Glenn in the initial attack."  
"What do you think was the main cause, sir?" asked Pyrrha.  
"Without any first hand accounts this is all speculation, but I believe the shootings weren't so much a catalyst for the attack so much as the straw that broke the camel's back. As Gylfi writes, Glenn's citizens were already living in fear of attack. Not actively, but they were all aware that should a large scale attack occur, there was only so much they could do. This isn't even taking into account the fact that many of Glenn's citizens moved there for the cheap accomadation, from which one can infer that they were already struggling in their daily lives before moving. Any further questions? No? Back to your textbooks then!"

* * *

Of course, all this negativity was bound to attract more Grimm. The day before everything crumbled, Jack stumbled into the store looking a little shaken. The other customers cleared out as fast as they could, as per usual. Jack however, didn't laugh. Nor did he pick up his usual shopping, or tell me anything about what was going on. Instead, he started looking at the kitchen utensils and other sharp objects. He picked up a set of knives, a strong metal string, and some sewing needles.  
I asked him what was going on, and he simply replied "Make sure you and Mani are in your apartment tonight. Keep the doors locked and don't let anyone in. I'll come in through the window. I'll explain then."  
He bought the things he picked out, and as he put them in his bag, I got a glimpse of what appeared to be large amounts of Dust in various forms.

The rest of my day was predictably tense. I had no idea what had Jack so shaken, but it couldn't be anything good. Even the business with Skoll only seemed to dampen his good mood, not kill it off entirely.

As the clock struck five, my work was over. I packed my things and headed home, where Mani was waiting and looking a little freaked out. I guessed Jack had payed her a visit at school.  
We sat in silence, not really having much worth saying. Simply to calm us down I asked her questions that I didn't really care about, and that she was bored answering. Just anything to kill the silence and not have the mood be so scary.

Eight o'clock on the dot, I heard the window scraping open and Jack crawling in.  
Mani and I both got to our feet and asked him what was going on. He just handed us a large plastic bag with containers of food in them.  
"Talk after dinner. I'm starving."  
We didn't really argue. We both hadn't had anything since our lunches, so food was welcome.  
Jack had pretty much inhaled his by the time we got the lids off of ours.

Whilst fiddling with the lid, I asked Jack what had him so paranoid.  
"That shooting about a week ago? It's taken a toll. The Grimm have been attacking with more ferocity and frequency than normal." Jack pulled his bag over and opened it up, unpacking its contents. There was all the stuff he bought today, and as I suspected there was a boatload of Dust. He also had a fair amount of ammo for his weapon (A large axe. It had a compartment to load shells in the handle, which make an explosion from the blade) and various kinds of metals.

I asked him what all of this was for.  
"Arts and crafts" he responded with a slight, forced grin.  
"Remember what I was saying about Skoll and that massive pack of mutts? It's happening. They're gonna attack soon, they're just sniffing for the weakest point in our minimal defenses. That's not even mentioning the Deathstalkers surrounding Glenn, or the Nevermores circling around the forest." He pulled out some crushed Burn Dust and sprinkled a bit on the handle of a couple of the knives, melting a hole through them.

"Why hasn't a warning been issued? If that many Grimm are about to attack people are going to be killed."  
"That's what I was trying to tell the fatcats in charge" responded Jack, as he threaded to metal strings through the holes in the knives.  
"But they seem to think that with the local militia and the Hunters, we've got it covered. I'd wager the real reason is that there aren't enough backup supplies to support the entire population of Mountain Glenn, and they're just trying to make sure that there's at least enough for themselves."

I looked at him in disbelief.  
"Why haven't you or the other Hunters warned anyone, then?" I asked.  
"Because that would just lead to violence as people fought for the limited resources we have, and bring the Grimm in sooner. We'd be fighting both the Grimm and each other. The ass-hats in charge have forced our hand here. At least if there's a surprise attack, we only have one enemy, because people will be too focused on running away."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. There was no way that any of this was justifiable... But he was still right.  
"So... What's our plan then?" I asked him.  
He sprinkled more Dust on more knives, though this time he focused on the blades. He melted them halfway through so they had little pockets in them before taking some of the metals he had (kind of like sheets of aluminum foil) and lined the inside of the pockets and placing Dust inside the lining. Ice, Energy, Fire... the sheet metal seemed to not be affected by the small amounts of Dust like the knives were. he then took other bits of metal, lined one side of them with the sheet metal and used the Burn Dust to melt them onto the knives and cover up the pockets.

"The plan, young Gylfi, is to be ready to fight for our lives with all the tools available to us. If this goes the way I think it'll go, I'm going to need more than just my  
Axe to get us through this. You two need to get some rest. I'll wake you when we're heading off. Things are gonna be tough tomorrow, so sleep as best you can."

* * *

The bell rang that signaled the end of Oobleck's class.

"Ah well, that seems to be the end of today's lesson. We shall continue next lesson from where we left off! Though you are all most welcome to, and in fact encouraged, to keep reading on your own." stated Oobleck before blazing his way out the door.  
"Like anyone's going to do that" Said Jaune to Ruby as they walked out of the classroom.

Weiss gave her signature 'Ice Queen Stare' at the two of them, as she fully intended to do just that.  
"I for one am genuinely interested in Gylfi's story, poor writing aside" stated Weiss.  
"He could lighten up a bit at least" responded Yang.  
"Oh yes, I can see how he'd be all giggles after losing his home, sister, and friend to the Grimm all at once" chided Blake.  
"Fair point" said Yang. "But a joke or two would at least have made it harder to be bored" she mumbled.

 _ **AN:**_

 _So, first published fic._

 _I plan on each story being multiple chapters, depending on what the actual historical event is. Any suggestions for such events are also welcome._

 _I'm aiming for one chapter a month (I don't get a lot of time to sit down and write)._

 _Criticism_ _and suggestions welcome in the comments. PM's will be read and responded to._


End file.
